Thanks so
much for this invitation. This is probably my first time visiting a Housing Help
Centre. That says something about how unique you are. Can you imagine if the
right number of Housing Help Centres existed to meet the demand in this
province? How many do you think we would need?

The Hardest Job in the World

I can well
imagine that the work of the Housing Help Centre is particularly challenging,
especially when there is such a lack of affordable housing.

The City of
Toronto recently hired 2 housing workers to very specifically work with some of
the people who are homeless and who had suddenly become very visible and in the
press - the young people under the Gardiner Expressway near Spadina and Bathurst
and the more than 100 sleeping outside our City Hall. I think those two workers
probably have one of the hardest jobs in the city right now. I don’t know where
they think they will find housing for people.

The homeless disaster and the campaign

Many of you
will know that in 1998 we formed a group called the Toronto Disaster Relief
Committee, declared homelessness a National Disaster and began a national
campaign which called for 2 solutions.

The first –
emergency relief to be channelled into the inner cities where the crisis was
severe – that is, in essence, the origin of the ‘SCPI’ monies. Secondly, we
called for a national housing programme and the 1% solution – a reinvestment of
an additional 1% - the average amount all levels of governments used to commit
to social housing when they were building it. We haven’t gotten that one yet,
that’s why I titled my speech Housing Would Help the Housing Help Centre.

I want to say
a couple things regarding the notion of disaster because it still applies.

Hurricanes.
Hurricane Hazel – McCallion that is. I saw her interviewed on TVO the other
night. She came to fame for doing what a politician should do in a disaster.
During the Mississauga train derailment, the largest evacuation in Canadian
history, she toured the site, she witnessed the damage and worked to ensure
people were safe and rehoused as soon as possible.

Hurricanes of
another sort such as the recent ones in Florida and Haiti leave very obvious
destruction and homelessness. They are also situations that beg for politicians
to be leaders, to witness the damage and to come up with immediate solutions and
it always takes money.

Homelessness
in our country wasn’t caused by a hurricane, it was and continues to be a man
made problem, a structural problem and we should expect it to be dealt with.

Over the
years I have taken a number of politicians on a tour of the homeless disaster.
It can range from several hours to all day or night. Most recently I took
Toronto Mayor David Miller on a tour at night to meet people sleeping outside
and to visit several emergency shelters. I believe that first hand witnessing
can make a huge impact and I’m happy to say that this year, for the first time
ever, our city is planning ahead for winter and has promised to open an
additional emergency shelter.

My focus during the Atkinson fellowship is to work
towards realizing a fully funded National Housing Programme.

Work on the ground

My first
priority is to stay connected to the people and to the issues. It is important
for me to be in close proximity to the people and it’s why I relocated to the
downtown east side of Toronto to be near what I call the epicentre of
homelessness. Because I am a nurse, and that is always how I have approached the
issue, I chose to stay connected to a health centre so I have an office at the
Sherbourne Health Centre. It is essential that I know, that I see, that I be
able to witness, respond and act on issues at the street level. You might call
this community organizing or community development, or health promotion (if
you’re a nurse), or capacity building. To me, it is nursing.

Let me give
you some examples of the issues I am working on: I call them the hotspots.

1)Shelter conditions – our shelters are by and large overcrowded, under
funded, long-term congregate living situations for people. In some cases
emergency shelters, including the Out of the Cold programme, do not meet the UN
standards for refugee camps. This is a pattern repeating itself across the
country. It’s only logical, as homelessness increases, shelter needs increase.
There are huge stresses on this system and the people in them.

2)Outdoor sleeping – people are now sleeping in parks, ravines, tents,
cars, subway grates, in front of city halls, in abandoned buildings, squats,
tent cities. Tent Cities and squats are new forms of survival and they are
occurring everywhere, from Halifax to Vancouver.

3)Reliance on the third sector – for example, the Out of the Cold program.
I want to mention this program again because it is faith based, charity based
and municipal governments have allowed this third sector to replace adequate
shelter. SARS must change our thinking and I’ll come back to this.

4)Plagues – congregate living situations (nursing homes, jails, camps,
shelters) all lead to serious health risks. As Florence Nightingale used to say
“nurse the room” – well when you have hundreds of people using the same room,
whether it’s a day time drop-in, a soup kitchen or a shelter you face special
problems. Conditions which stress the immune system (such as cancer, diabetes,
lack of sleep, hepatitis) increase the risk of contracting other illness and
heighten the risk for tuberculosis and other infections. Every year a new menace
occurs. We saw the impact of the Norwalk virus on shelter users who did not have
adequate access to toilets. We saw the impact of a TB outbreak that killed
several homeless men. We now see the impact of a massive bedbug infestation in
our shelter system. Are they in Hamilton yet? I remain astonished at what we
have not learned yet from SARS. As a nurse colleague of mine, Barb Craig, has
said – what would have happened if the first case of SARS had walked into a
downtown hospital like St. Michael’s Hospital? What if homeless people were
exposed or contracted SARS, what if they slept one night in a Salvation Army
shelter, the next day used a soup kitchen, in the afternoon went to a drop-in
centre, in the evening had dinner and slept at an Out of the Cold – which the
next day is closed necessitating them to go to the next Out of the Cold!

5)Dying and deaths – there are now huge palliative care needs for this
population. Many years ago I knew I was going to way too many funerals for a
community health nurse. Today, I now know that we need to deal with a shameless
gap in palliative care needs of homeless men and women. Each month now we add
between six and eight names to the monthly homeless memorial at the Church of
the Holy Trinity beside the Eaton Centre. I was however shocked to learn that
the death rate in communities like Sudbury and Ottawa is comparable to
Toronto’s. As my colleague Beric German has said “homelessness is a national
disaster, but the number of homeless deaths is a national scandal’.

I’m also
working on a number of other fronts.

The rest of the country

It
is essential I leave Toronto once in a while to see what’s happening in other
communities. I am quite convinced that when I visit a community I can see very
quickly (especially when I’m meeting with the right people and being taken to
the right places), what’s going on – the issues, the gaps, and the creative
solutions being developed. This information allows me to remind politicians, the
media and the general public that this disaster is menacing and progressive and
not just a Toronto problem or one of the individual who they suggest “chooses
that lifestyle”.

Social Determinants of Health

I’m hoping to
bring to life, in practice, what this means. Are our schools teaching this
material or are health care professionals still getting only a few hours on
homelessness and it’s about the so called ‘mental patient’ who goes off his
drugs and becomes violent?

I’m working
with health professionals’ groups to look at practice, policy and their role in
advocacy. I’m starting with the nurses and steeling myself for the doctors next.

They must not
just talk the talk they must walk the walk.

Book project

I have had so
many opportunities to speak out and the media have been extremely important in
educating the public about homelessness. However, I know that homeless people
want to speak out too. The Tent City people are the most impressive – not only
did they allow media into their ‘living room’ for years, no matter what the time
of day or night, but after the September 2002 eviction when they won their
housing many continued to speak out so others would have the same privilege –
the privilege of a key for a front door and a toilet to flush. I want to allow
people like this to be what I call standing upright (instead of always being
shown lying on grates) – so I am doing a book where they will tell it like it
is.

Move the
political logjam.
Making housing happen.

This is
usually what people really want to know. Are we getting closer to winning a
comprehensive national housing and homelessness strategy? Everywhere I go groups
are lining up wanting to do housing in their community.

There are
some good signs.

Remember
Prime Minister Chretien appointed a Minister Responsible for Homelessness? I
thought that was such a good title – a Minister Responsible for Homelessness.
That was Claudette Bradshaw. That was then.

Remember that
in 2001 the federal government signed a federal-provincial-territorial housing
agreement?

More recently
Prime Minister Martin appointed a full-fledged Minister of Housing. Prior to
this, housing was an add-on to other ministerial duties such as transportation,
environment and public works. The new minister, Joe Fontana, is also the
Minister of Labour.

The Prime
Minister has joined the federal government’s homelessness programs with the
federal housing programs, indicating that he is at least making the link.

In the last
federal election, the Liberals promised $1.5 billion over the next five years,
on top of the $1 billion over five years they had promised earlier. We have just
learned that there will be a federal-provincial housing ministers’ meeting,
likely this November. This is a great opportunity for lobbying.

Our main
logjam is of course in Ontario with monies being held back. The 2001 federal –
provincial housing agreement promised $244 million dollars to Ontario which
Ontario would match. Ontario’s February 2003 budget promised another $100
million. There are varying reports on how much Ontario has spent but it is
probably between 1.2 and 12 million. Our other problem is that our housing
ministers (Minister Caplan and Gerritson) are showing a great deal of resistance
in opening their office doors to meet with housing groups.

So now what you can do

Invite
your mayor and other friendly politicians to “tour your disaster” and let them
know that you’re on the same page in terms of trying to convince the province
and federal government to provide more monies for housing, for increasing the
per diem for shelters, etc.

Invite the
media for a tour as well.

Join the
HHNO (the Housing and Homelessness Network of Ontario)

Sign on to
the TDRC list serve

Before the
end of November create a delegation to meet with your MP and MPP and tell them
as graphically as you can what your situation is here in Hamilton and why you
need monies for housing. If you do one thing, this is the most important.

Do you
have something planned for National Housing Day (this is the day that the Big
City Mayors signed on to the declaration that homelessness is a national
disaster)?

order some
1% buttons from TDRC for your agency and clients

Be
prepared to think outside of the box. In York region, they recently decided to
use pre-fab Durakit housing for emergency shelter for families, to given them
privacy and dignity.

Perhaps
most importantly determine ways to build momentum to support a local housing
project.

Hamilton is a
key player in our fight for housing so I urge you to be loud and persistent. I’m
looking forward to spending a bit more time in Hamilton today meeting with
people and learning more about some of your issues and needs.